Drunk idiot steals plane & lands at HPN

[[email protected]]

Man, where are all these idiots coming from that steal planes and wreck
them? (And then walk away when by all rights they should have died)
Where's the self-preservation instinct that says "Hey, wait a minute...
I'm not a pilot and I could get killed in this thing.." There MUST be
some kind of reality disconnect at work here - or is it just improperly
prescribed medication(?) <rant mode off>

The sad part is that yesterday's incident and that dumbass 14-year old
in AL last week who stole the 152 (and crashed it) will only revivie
the "Those little planes aren't safe" BS for the rest of us. Amazing
how the HPN guy could have such disregard for his two pals' lives
(never mind his own) but I guess you're not thinking straight when your
BAL is .15 Just think of what might have happened if this guy cut off
an RJ on short final (he wasn't talking on frequency apparently) I
heard on the news he's looking at 20 years for all the charges. Good.
He can entertain the lads in jail with his "I soloed with only 7 hours"
story.

Will

[Robert M. Gary]

The press is reporting that he had approx 7 hours of instruction logged
before hand. Not that that makes it not stupid, but it probably
explains how he didn't kill himself.

-Robert

[Ben Hallert]

> Drunk idiot steals plane & lands at HPN

No kidding, they charge $3.87 for 100LL!

It's only $3.53 at BDR. What an idiot!

[Ben Smith]

> No kidding, they charge $3.87 for 100LL!

He should have known better than to stop at Signature! :)

[[email protected]]

For that matter, Robinson at HVN gets $3.16 after .20 cash discount -
but that's not the point <grin>

I didn't realize that dope landed after 4am - probably not much chance
of hitting a regional jet (or anyone else)

[Gary Drescher]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Man, where are all these idiots coming from that steal planes
> and wreck them?

Was the stolen plane that landed at HPN wrecked? The articles I've seen
called it a "safe landing" and mentioned no damage or injury.

> Just think of what might have happened if this guy cut off
> an RJ on short final

Pretty unlikely, since he didn't land on a runway.

--Gary

[kontiki]

Only a Darwin Award runner-up apparently.

Robert M. Gary wrote:

> The press is reporting that he had approx 7 hours of instruction logged
> before hand. Not that that makes it not stupid, but it probably
> explains how he didn't kill himself.
>
> -Robert
>

[[email protected]]

The footage I saw on the local news last night showed no obvious damage
to the plane. Pretty impressive for a guy with 7 hours dual at 4am with
a BAL of .15!

OK, he landed on a taxiway, but my point was he could have wreaked
havoc in a busy pattern at any other time of the day. To have a VFR guy
show up unannounced without a squawk code and buzz into their busy
pattern could have been fatal. When I instructed at HPN, pattern work
meant we got sandwiched between airlines & bizjets.

[Gary Drescher]

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> OK, he landed on a taxiway, but my point was he could have wreaked
> havoc in a busy pattern at any other time of the day.

True, he could have made choices that were more dangerous than the ones he
did make. (The ones he did make were still pretty bad, though.)

--Gary

[Flyingmonk]

At 4:00am? was he even current for night flying? ;^)

[Blueskies]

"Robert M. Gary" > wrote in message oups.com...
> The press is reporting that he had approx 7 hours of instruction logged
> before hand. Not that that makes it not stupid, but it probably
> explains how he didn't kill himself.
>
> -Robert
>

The 'success' of these flights just helps to prove these small planes are safe...